Bloom Projects

This exhibition series is programmed at MCASB’s Main Space location. Bloom Projects features artwork by regional, national, and international emerging, early-career, or under-recognized artists. Bloom Projects gives contemporary artists whose work has begun to garner significant attention an opportunity to move beyond their studio practice, encouraging experimentation and giving them the resources necessary to further their careers as professional visual artists. An online brochure, with scholarly essays written by MCASB or guest curators, accompanies each exhibition.


Current & Future Bloom Projects

Past Bloom Projects

Susanna Vapnek, Tea Fire, 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 in., Courtesy the Artist

Bloom Projects: Susanna Vapnek, Sundowner

Inspired by the 2008 Tea Fire, Susanna Vapnek’s paintings tap into the intensity of shared community experience with emotive, apocalyptic representations of the Santa Barbara…

Afruz Amighi, Amazon, 2012, Base metal chain, 18 x 71 in., Courtesy the Artist

Bloom Projects: Afruz Amighi, Suspended City

Afruz Amighi will create an on-site sculptural installation, which highlights the often ignored and unmonumental architecture of poverty and desperation. Drawing inspiration from the ever-expanding…

Kathleen Yorba, Ladder, 2010, Branches and encaustic, 10 x 6 x 5 ft., Courtesy the Artist

Bloom Projects: Kathleen Yorba, Sequence

Kathleen Yorba is a mixed-media artist, her interests are the study of her Latina genealogy, the idea of organic memory and the inner workings of…

Dawit L. Petros, Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7) from Single Cube Formation, No. 1, 2010, Digital Chromogenic Print, 20 x 25 in., Courtesy the Artist

Bloom Projects: Dawit L. Petros, Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7)

Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7), are photographs of temporary sculptural installations that investigate permutational possibilities and the disjuncture between physical and abstract materiality. The works…

Sarah Cain, Ray Bans with Slits, 2010, Unknown dimensions, Courtesy the Artist

Bloom Projects: Sarah Cain, Santa Barbara

Los Angeles-based artist Sarah Cain takes painting outside of its traditional canon by using man-made and natural materials to create a tension between abstract, geometric…